


She is the First and Last and Only Eternal Empress

by Keenir



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Coda of codas, Gen, I apologize for Mara Jade, do I list all the Force Ghosts in the tags or under characters or neither?, so many guest appearances, the Force has a lonnnnnnng history
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-08
Updated: 2020-01-08
Packaged: 2021-02-27 13:35:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,470
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22167946
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Keenir/pseuds/Keenir
Summary: In the wake of her victory, Rey has one more job to do: the most important of all
Kudos: 9





	She is the First and Last and Only Eternal Empress

_'Skywalker'??_

Rey turned her head to where the voice had repeated the surname she had adopted from he who had been a great influence upon her.

_Really would've thought 'Rey Organa' had a better ring to it._

She spun around, but could only make out the edge of a bit of cloak that wasn't entirely there. _A hologram? Someone's messing with me via hologram?_

_Really, Maul?_

_Yes,_ as Rey's knees gave way so her mind could expand to greet everyone...

* * *

 _Hi,_ said a lanky figure with a breathing tube clinging to one sleeve. _I'm Anakin Skywalker. Or -_ and his voice deepened, scarred with respiratory problems - _Lord Darth Vader._

 _What were you just telling me about not to scare the child?_ Darth Maul ribbed him, then introduced himself. _We are - all of us here, yourself excepted - are Force Ghosts of past Sith and Jedi._

There was a highly indignant splutter-ish sort of noise.

 _Predominantly Jedi and Sith,_ Luke said.

"Where am I?" Rey asked. If she looked one way, she could see two suns rising over a sandstone ridge which itself rose over a sand sea. Look another way, and there was solid jungle that was warmed more than lit by its own sun. A third direction, and Luke's island retreat. A fourth -

 _We are in your mind,_ said Sheev Palpatine.

Grandfather.

 _Yeah, Padme would've won that bet...just not sure who the 'lucky' lady was,_ Anakin muttered.

 _Focus,_ Darth Bane instructed him. _For all your faults, you and this girl are better heirs to my teaching than Sheev was._

 _You wound me,_ Sheev said in an aside to him.

 _I didn't bother with wounding; ask anyone._ To Rey, _It is an honor and a delight to meet you. Now the rest of these blights can finally stop nattering on about a prophecy._

"What prophecy?" Rey asked.

Anakin said, _The prophecy about bringing balance to the Force, same as me...only appearantly you handled it better than I did. No hard feelings._

"None taken? So why are you all here?"

 _I told you already,_ Sheev said, sounding quite disappointed.

"Then tell me again," Rey asked. "Or leave me alone. Actually, just do that."

 _The Force's balance, you are,_ Yoda stated.

"Go away."

 _We are not about to forget you, nor will we ever,_ Darth Plagueis promised.

"Leave me alone!" Rey repeated.

 _Were you not paying attention, my child?_ Sheev Palpatine asked of her. _All the Sith flowed into me, just as I informed you I would flow into you once you struck me dead._

 _Fortunately,_ Master Windu said, _by that point she already had all the Jedi within her._

 _Yes,_ Anakin muttered, _lucky her._

"What do you want with me?" Rey asked. "All of you - what do you want?"

 _What we want is less material than what we can provide you,_ Darth Bane said.

 _Hmm, correct he is, I say,_ Yoda agreed. _With two, disagreement rises, conflict returns, apprentices plotting, empires warring. With more..._

 _We are all here,_ said a Jedi who led a crusade against Sith and Jedi. _A miserable battleground, but here you are._

 _The galaxy is united,_ Bane said.

 _Again, s_ aid Darth Revan.

"Again," Rey mouthed. "Again," she said. "And until I die."

 _Not paying attention, I fear you have,_ Yoda remarked.

 _Each of our Force ghosts has a measure of vitality to us,_ Plagueis observed. _Unified as we are within you, Rey, and you are undying to an extent I could only aim towards._

 _As I told you in the battle,_ Sheev said to Rey, _the might of all the ships is yours._

"But -"

 _Or do you only think you can repair flesh?_ a Rakata chuckled in the depths of the group.

 _We are here to advise you, to council you from here on out,_ Mace Windu said, _Empress Rey._

 _You have your own mind, and we are guides,_ Bane said, _Empress Rey._

Sith and Jedi alike spoke her title and name: _Empress Rey._

* * *

**Three Days Later:**

"You okay?" Finn asked, he and Rey sitting on the perfectly flat ground in the middle of what had been the Imperial Senate and had been the Republic's Senate before then.

"Better than I thought I'd be by this point," Rey said. 

_Fair enough,_ Anakin remarked off to one side.

"But I thought you'd be off having adventures with Rose and your fellow rebels."

 _Not sure who you're mocking now, though._ Though he was grinning.

"We're all here for you," Finn said. "Friends don't let friends down."

 _Dust in your Force ghost eyes, Anakin?_ Qui-Gon asked.

_Shut up._

"I appreciate that," Rey said, knowing Finn would have understood that even if she hadn't said it aloud, _but I want to say it. I mean it._ "And theres something else on your mind."

"Wellll, since you mention it," Finn said, "Lando's been asked to pass on a message, and I said I'd speak with you about it, and -"

Rey hugged him. "Never change, Finn," she said, knowing that he wouldn't take that as an order from the most powerful person in the galaxy.

"Try and stop me," he grinned as she returned to where she'd been sitting. "Anyway, the question was from the New Republic government people who survived Hosnian Prime's destruction. They want to know how you'll be dividing up the galaxy."

Sheev started laughing.

"Dividing?" Rey asked.

"Who gets put in charge of the Wild Space, the Hutt realm, things like that," Finn said.

Feeling eyes upon her - more than just the spectral images of those in her thoughts - Rey looked up and around them. Standing, she held out a hand to help Finn up. "This is a senate," she said.

"Yeah," he agreed.

"A senate in an empire. A senate in a republic."

"It was."

"Then we need to keep it a senate," Rey decided. "Everyone comes here, everyone gets represented."

"Okay," Finn said, suspecting that wouldn't go over well with a lot of people.

_Past mistakes, you must avoid._

_You put it so simply,_ Count Dooku said.

"Rey?" Finn asked, seeing a wicked smile spread across her features. "You good?"

"I'm great. I'm the Empress of the galaxy, everyone says so." There hadn't been much in the way of opposition - not with war-weariness hitting home on all sides of the galaxy and all the most vocal who would have opposed her, now dead. It was a compromise that everyone could agree upon, a starting point from which to hang future negotiations and discussions about what form the next galactic government should be. _They don't yet know I'll outlive them all, even those of Maz' people._

To that, Finn could only nod. 

"And everyone wants the ear of someone in power - it was true on Jakku, its true here."

 _Fast learner,_ Revan said approvingly.

"I already know what some of my first decrees have to be, then," Rey said. "Benevolence and beneficence will be rewarded - forgiveness of debt, raising neighborhoods out of poverty, de-toxifying planets...the people who do that, will earn my favor."

 _Padme would be proud,_ Anakin said.

"So the wealthy get more influence," Finn said, knowing how Rose would take the news.

 _I have to start somewhere,_ Rey knew. "While they burn their wealth helping those who need it." _I have a long time to smooth out all the wrinkles from my plan. And already my words are being beamed to the far reaches of the galaxy._

_Beyond which, Sheev reminded her, there are threats coming. Things against which -_

"Welcome back," Rey said to a small delegation who were being walked under armed guard and lots of hovering camera droids.

A delegation of one blue individual in civilian clothing. The absence of an Imperial uniform did not make him any less recognizable to those who knew such faces.

"We found Chiss space," Poe said, "and look who we found there."

"You sound surprised that I returned home when there was no Empire," said he who had been Grand Admiral Thrawn a lifetime ago.

"Be respectful - she's in charge now."

Thrawn looked at her, and Rey could feel him instinctively sizing her up, analyzing her and her capabilities. "I am always respectful. What would you have of us?" Thrawn asked her.

Some might have presumed he was speaking of the former Imperial officers who were still uncaught. Others might have presumed he was speaking of the Chiss.

"I demand nothing," Rey said with a gentle smile to all who watched in person and on any sort of media transmission. "But **I must insist** on good behavior," she finished, her declaration to the galaxy as a whole taking on the cold undertones her grandfather had been known for.

Thrawn nodded. "It shall be so."

 _Well what do you know, something good can come of sand planets,_ Anakin quipped.

Mara Jade laughed. _Told ya so!_ squeezing Luke.


End file.
